Trial to begin for man accused in 2007 slaying of West Bridgewater football star in Brockton

Tuesday

Feb 25, 2014 at 4:00 AM

The trial for a Randolph man accused in the 2007 murder of 17-year-old Jose Gurley, a city resident and West Bridgewater High School star football player, is expected to begin on Wednesday.

BROCKTON – It has been nearly seven years since the murder of 17-year-old Jose Gurley, a city resident and West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School star football player, in July 2007.

As the trial for his accused killer is expected to begin this week, Mark Bodwell, principal of West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School, still remembers Gurley’s team spirit and the teen’s dedication to his school.

“He was a very good kid. He was an athlete. He was well-liked by his classmates and by the staff – a good kid who worked hard both in the classroom and on the athletic field,” Bodwell said Monday. “It’s been a long time. Hopefully, justice is served.”

The trial for Andre Robert Brewer, 25, of Randolph, who is accused of the shooting death of Gurley outside a Brockton house party, is expected to begin in Plymouth County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Brewer has been held without bail at the Plymouth jail since his 2011 arrest. He is charged with first-degree murder, unlawfully possessing a firearm, unlawfully possessing a loaded firearm and unlawfully possessing ammunition.

The teen’s murder sparked vigils and peace marches across the city and garnered national media attention.

The case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” a national investigative crime show on the Fox television network, as authorities searched for Gurley’s killer.

Nearly four years after Gurley’s murder, federal, state and local authorities arrested Brewer on a warrant in New Bedford on March 8, 2011. He was arraigned on the charges in Plymouth County Superior Court on June 29, 2011 after a June 3, 2011 indictment.

Prosecutors said the break in the case came in November 2010 when two witnesses came forward who identified Brewer as the shooter.

Their names were withheld and the court documents in the case sealed for their protection, prosecutors earlier said in court.

In 2011, a prosecutor recounted the statements the witnesses made to investigators, which included seeing Brewer approach the scene of the shooting, seeing the flash from his gun and seeing Gurley fall to the ground immediately afterward.

The shooting happened outside a house party that was dispersing at Roosevelt Heights, a city-owned affordable housing complex on Arthur Paquin Way on Brockton’s north side, on July 21, 2007.

Members of two city rival gangs were at the party, and an argument broke out as people were leaving, prosecutors said in court in 2011.

Gurley was outside the house at the time. Authorities said after the shooting that he may have been trying to break up the argument when he was shot.

An autopsy found Gurley died of a gunshot wound to the torso.

A call to Brewer’s attorney, Frank Spillane, was not returned Monday afternoon.

Gurley was a Brockton resident who was attending West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School on the school choice program and was planning to attend college.

“It was very devastating news for the students and the staff,” Bodwell said in recalling the days after the teen’s murder. “It’s something you just don’t expect to happen.”